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Information and communication technologies, the Internet in particular, have a significant impact on all the aspects of social life. Therefore, it is necessary to study the problems, consequences, and scale of such influence in the sphere of different scientific disciplines (sociology, psychology, and cultural studies) as well as in the sphere of interdisciplinary discourse. There is a need for research adequate to the current situation of transition to a new technological mode, a digital society, which actualizes the demand for the formation of a new type of personality, a new elite. The new elite will be the bearers of the socio-cultural code of deep and systemic information processing, the owners of electronic culture on the basis of critical digital literacy and reflexivity. At the same time, specific empirical studies of recent years abroad and in Russia demonstrate the predominance of competences of information and communication technologies user, which is absolutely insufficient in the digital society. This research aims to analyze the value-reflexive attitude of Russians to the Internet based on the results of a specific sociological survey among the residents of Moscow and the Moscow Region, implemented under the guidance and direct participation of the authors of this article during the period of social restrictions imposed by state authorities in connection with the new coronavirus infection from April to November 2020 by online questionnaire. The research tools included a block of questions on the digitalization of the region, including a number of statements showing the value-reflexive attitude of the respondents to the Internet. The results show that the number of respondents, who regard the Internet as one of the modern civilizational values, exceeds the share of respondents who recognize the dangers of Internet addiction. The authors have revealed that an even smaller percentage of those aware of the relationship of Internet addiction and anonymity on the Internet with the destruction of moral and moral systems, the erasure of the boundaries of personal and public space, psychological problems. A significant proportion of those who exhibit dangerous symptoms of alienation from the real, physical and social world was recorded. It was determined that for the majority of respondents, the Internet space has not become a platform of freedom, creative fulfillment, a friendly environment. The article assumes that economic conditions could become the foundation for bringing people together in the Internet space. Intergenerational differences in the value-reflexive attitude to the Internet space are revealed. The authors draw attention to the fact that the elderly, as the bearers of the deep meanings of traditional cultural forms, reflect the risks and dangers of the Internet space to a greater extent than the young people and adults. The authors link the prospects for further research with the sociological monitoring, which will allow studying the dynamics of digitalization processes in the region, the impact of age characteristics of identity on the attitude to the Internet, and the formation of electronic culture.

The problem of studying the structure of reading preferences of the population is interdisciplinary, as it belongs to the fields of literary studies, teaching, and social studies. There is a need for the research matching the current situation, which a number of authors quite rightfully name the “reading crisis”. At the same time, specific empirical studies of the recent years in Russia show an increase in reader interest (especially among young people). This actualizes the need to diagnose the structure of reader preferences in the vanguard of young people, the future scientific, technical, and managerial elite — the university students. In the world, one may see a reception of the national classical literary heritage as a reaction to globalist projects in the form of Americanization (or rather, McDonaldization). This study aims to analyze the place of Russian literary classics in the structure of reading preferences among the university students based on the results of a specific sociological questionnaire of the student audience in Astrakhan, Volgograd, and Moscow, implemented under the guidance and direct participation of the authors in 2016 and in 2019. As an indicator of familiarity of respondents with the works of Russian and Soviet writers of the 19th and 20th centuries, the authors counted the reading of a full text. The level of familiarity with the texts of the Golden Age of the Russian culture has increased, same goes for the readers’ interest in Soviet authors. Students pay more attention to the works of N. V. Gogol and M. A. Bulgakov nowadays. There is also a growing audience of authors, who write about the Great Patriotic War. The authors of this article associate this phenomenon with the activation of the historical memory of Russians. At the same time, the results show that students prefer the Soviet period of literary classics to a much lesser extent than the works of the Golden Age. The tendency to increase the importance of Russian literary classics in the structure of reader preferences of contemporary students can be associated with the processes of revival of interest in Russian culture, with the strengthening of civil position, and ultimately — the national identity. The prospects for further research are considered by the authors based on qualitative methods involving the theoretical and methodological potential of social and literary studies, which can show the possible transformation of the understanding of the meaning of works of Russian literary classics by modern students.